SENI LAMA MELAYU (MALAY OLDEN ART) at the town where dad was born. Notice again the order of numbers? Oh... By the way, I have a 'fetish' for numbers... Certain ones carry a certain reverbation for me and serve as some sort of spiritual pointers as how to navigate life and what choices to make next.
Somewhere in the district of Merbok with the height of Gunung Jerai in the backdrop, lies a set of ancient graves believed to belong to the family of the first king of Kedah. His name is said to be Sultan Muzaffar Shah and he lived and ruled in the early 1100s AD, some 300 years earlier than the said official opening of the kingdom of Melaka...
Now, the kingdom of Melaka is almost always referred to in official Malaysian history as the earliest and most prosperous Malay kingdom. What about Kedah which is acknowleged by everyone as having existed much earlier? I believe everyone knows that but why wasn't it recognised as much as Melaka? Is it because they think Kedah is a minor kingdom while Melaka used to be quite a grand empire ruling over a big part of the Malay Archipelago? Or is it because Kedah lacked prominent personalities like that in Melaka?
Now practically everyone knows the name of the legendary Melaka and Malay warrior, Hang Tuah. Many also know of the exploits or Melaka rulers such as Sultan Mansur Shah and Sultan Mahmud Shah, also the bravery of its other rulers like Sultan Alauddin and Sultan Muzaffar (the Muzaffar of Melaka of course as the name Muzaffar is used by many Malay rulers). But how many (outside of Kedah) know the exploits of Kedah's very own rulers or its long legendary history especially as narrated in the classic text Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa?
Look at the plaque above... I'm sorry if I can't explain it clearly as the trip to this place was made in January 18th 2007, a continuation from the trip as told in The ruins of Pengkalan Bujang .... And the writings, being in such choice of colour against such background in stone is not that clear either and I admit, I have to rush to complete this and the next few posting before I'm, 'allowed' to leave Perak and get into Selangor. But it did say, Sultan Muzaffar Shah of Kedah died in either 1136 AD or 1129 AD (if memory serves me right)... At least enough to give the idea, how far way back was the time this king flourised in...
And so there I was staring at this scene. Beautiful isn't it with the 1,200 metre plus high Gunung Jerai in the background, the most visible high ground within a 100km radius or so I think. Here is a beacon said to have guide travellers, traders and adventurers in an around the region for more than 1,000 years! The other highlands are situated within Banjaran Titiwangsa or the Main Range which is quite a distance inland.
Thus they said, that is why Kedah (or rather the ancient kingdom of Langkasuka) was founded earlier than the other kingdoms in Peninsular Malaysia... When a warrior prince from the Middle East or European region (depending on how or where you interpret the location of the ancient kingdom of Rum) by the name of Merong Mahawangsa was stranded on the shores of an island called Pulau Serai which is actually ancient Gunung Jerai ! During a time when most of the land you see in the picture was submerged in water, perhaps as remnants of the flood during Prophet Nuh's time? God knows best...
As it is, the story as recorded in the ancient text Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa is steeped in magic and tales so outlandish for the modern mind to believe or take note of. Merong Mahawangsa was a prince who headed a fleet to bring the son of the Emporer of Rum to China to marry the princess of the emporer there. But a giant bird, the arrogant garuda (I believe the English term is roc or something as there is a similar legend about a giant bird in ancient Europe and Middle East) pledged to prevent the marriage from happening in front of the wise King Solomon (also known as Prophet Sulaiman in Islam).
The king just allowed the giant bird to take its shot... Said the king, what God has planned, no one can alter however powerful one is... It's only a matter of time before God's decrees take its course. To cut a long story short, the giant bird attacked the fleet that carried the prince of Rum towards China. The attack happened not far away from the present shore of Kedah and in the aftermath, Merong Mahawangsa founded the kingdom of Langkasuka starting at Gunung Jerai and that is the precursor to the opening of the state of Kedah.
The small road leading to the tomb of Sultan Muzaffar Shah...
Now, some may wonder, why did I put a question mark in the title of this article... Is Sultan Muzaffar Shah the first king of Kedah or not? Well, that might depend on how you interpret history. Some say, Sultan Muzaffar Shah is actually Merong Mahawangsa after converting to Islam and taking on another name. Others say, the Sultan Muzaffar Shah buried in Merbok is the grandson or great grandson of the legendary Merong Mahawangsa.
Now, the Sultan Muzaffar Shah who is said to have flourished in the earlier 1100s AD or so is officially acknowledged as the first king of Kedah because he was the first to embrace Islam... In the hands of another legendary figure known as Sheikh Abdullah whose tomb is believed to be on top of Gunung Jerai. So there were a few other kings before him but they where not officially recognised by the present authorities as the kings were supposed to be infidels.
There are a few who beg to differ saying all the kings were Muslims all the while. There are a small group who even dared to put forward the theory that Merong Mahawangsa came to Kedah as a Muslim as he made the trip sometime in the 7th Century, well after the Prophet Muhammad SAW has preached the universal message of truth with a famous envoy Saad Abi Waqas having spread the religion up to China! Well, that may be the case... What puzzles me, the text Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa mentioned that Prophet Sulaiman was still alive when Merong Mahawangsa founded Langkasuka or early Kedah. Now, official history said, Sulaiman lived in the 900 years before the Prophet Isa or the Christ was born. This is about 1,500 years before Prophet Muhammad walked on earth. So how do you tally all this?
I left the tomb wondering the whole significance of the trip... What does it say? I do know that since December, I got a feeling saying most of the Western interpreted official history on the ruins in and around Merbok were consciously falsified by parties aligned with the world Zionist movement to fool the Malays... And so we are taught, the original populace of the Malay Archipelago were Hindus before they were either forcefully converted, cooerced by circumstances or simply driven away into the forest by Muslim 'invaders' which came later.
Suffice to say, I believe these are all blatant lies... Islam has always existed with the advent of humanity on earth as brought down by the Prophet Adam but it was the devil and their cohorts which try to lead people astray making them bow down to idols and such. And thus came the term Hindu to refer to a group of religion where a major part of its so-called adherents worship a variety of idols and such is supposed to be the way of the original people of the Malay Archipelago. Enough of this... Just give what I said a thought...
So the time came for me to leave Merbok. Look at the sign-post and guess where to next... Cheers! :]
12 comments:
Assalamu'alaikum.
Appreciate your good work. Please try to study and rewrite our colonized Kedah history from the anti-Zionist point of view. we need mathematical and hard science people to rewrite history. The discipline will help count and select truths from spotlight of falsehoods.
Kedah, Acheh and Siam have long sharing history. Inter-marriage had made them family, but today they are in 3 different countries. The colonial movement behind the zionist power, broke the family apart.
A'kum.
Walaikumsalam. Insyaallah... I will try to correct our history as and went the need arises. After all, I have to follow clues given by Allah along the way. I can't tell for sure when but it will come in due time, Insyaallah! :]
I feel that you should know better than to give your own interpretation on history. The original Malays were animist, then Hindu and Buddhist simultaneously before the advent of Islam. The statues and findings at Lembah Bujang already show this and Malay peope generally accept this to be the truth. How else can you explain all the Hindu statues at the site. And is candi another word for mosque? Please don't try to corrupt history with your bigotted views. Try to show some respect for the sensitivity of others. The indians were one of the first people to introduce civilization to all the people of this area. All the other races in southeast asia including the malays in general have no problems accepting this, so why do you?
assalamualaikum. diharap rakan-rakan dpt juga baca blogspot ini:
http://sejarahnagarakedah.blogspot.com/
segala persoalan mengenai aceh, siam, kedah, semenanjung melaka terjawab. kita sudah ditipu bulat-bulat oleh british.
radzi,pls help me...i was told that i tak boleh jejak kaki from the point of kota kuala muda @lembah candi area till upwards to alor setar....dari alor setar upwards ke siam,i selamat...pls digest my message here.......kenepa i tak boleh jejak kaki ? i was told that i adalah keturunan merong mahawangsa and king ligor......any clue?and raja bersiong too...quenpatani
The chandi in Lembah Bujang reflect more Buddhism than it was Hinduism. The architecture and art science reflects that claim. Strangely someone had planted an out of place "Ganesh" statue to twist the whole picture.
Sorry to brake some of the "pride" planted by the British for their colonial purposes.
Nice blog. Keep up the good work. Malacca is important compared to Kedah from the point of view of Malaysian history because the Sultanate nearly encompassed all the states of Malaya. Kedah was a vast kingdom as well but some of the regions that had formed part of the Kedah kingdom are now in Southern Thailand. The same goes with the Kelantan Sultanate. Probably due to our foreign policy in maintaining a healthy relationship with Thailand, some of the hostile history of the past are best forgotten.
can u explain to me about salasilah kesultanan kedah.from the first until now.
Can I just say that I dearly appreciate your work. It's always difficult to find truth in history but what you do is highly admirable. I guess I appreciate the time and effort you've taken to share with us the insights of your journey and interpretations. Some sources on the simply cannot be entirely trusted so thanks again for sharing with us another hidden point of view that needs to be heard. I am a 25 year old 2nd generation Malay Australian. I've been vastly interested in Malay/Indonesian history obviously because of my background - and difficult enough it is to find my roots of my immediate family as I was raised in Australia, let alone my Malay/Indonesian roots. Anyway, I intend to travel to some of the places you've visited. Kedah has always been calling for me. Assalamulaikum.
TQ. Waalaikumussalam.
salam...i have read your post... pity me bcoz even though i live at Kampung Bujang and of course one of the house that u show above is my uncle's house..near to my house also...i didnt know the existence of that tomb..dont bother to know more..but recently..when the government start to do finding about our history near Sungai Batu... i feel excited to know more about my kampung.....thank u for having this info so i can know the specialities that my kampung has and i should be proud of it
Wassalam. Same same... :]
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